Process of desulfurizing and briqueting ores.



W. A. HALL. PROCESS OF DESULFURIZING AND BRIQUBTING ORES.

APPLICATION FILED JUNE 27, 1913.

0Q H P 1W 1 m 9 w J Mm W a 9 0 mm 8 0 5d M WW) d A 2. m r F 2 i av M 6 w 1 Q UNITE WILLIAM A. HALL, OF NEW YORK, N. Y.

PROCESS OF DESULFURIZING AND BRIQUETING ORES.

Specification of Letters Patent. Application filed .Tune 27, 1913. Serial No. 776,152.

Patented Dec 30, 1913.

'1 '0 all ic/m/n. if may (o/(c6191 Be it known that I, WILLIAM A. HALL, citizen of the Unit-ed States, residing at New York, in the county of New York and State of New York, have invented or discovered certain new and useful Improve ments in Processes of Desulfurizing and llriqueting Ores, of which the following is a specification, reference being had therein to the accompanying drawings.

The object of the present invention is to remove the sulfur from sulfid ores, whether such ores be in the formof pyrites, pyrrhotite, or other ores, by means of a process somewhat similar to that disclosed in my prior applications 725,024, filed Oct. 19,

1912; 770,946. filcd Mav 31. 1913, and

773,456, filed June 13, 1913, all of which applications describe and claim processes of obtaining sulfur in a commercial form by treatment of sulfid ores by processes involving the use of a reducing flame, and in the presence of small amounts of steam.

In carrying out. my present invention I preferably employ a furnace somewhat similar to the so-called Dwight and Lloyd furnaces. which are already well known to inetallurgists, and by way of example in the accompanying drawings, I have shown a furnace which meets the requirements of the present proces.

In said drawings; Figure 1 is a longitudinal vertical section of a form of furnace which may be employed, said section being on the line 1-1 of Fig. 2. Fig. 2 shows a vertical transverse section of the same furnace, said section being on the line 2-2 of Fig. looking in the direction of the arrow. Fig. 3 shows, on a somewhat larger scale, a particular form of traveling belt or conveyer whi h may be employed in this furnace. I

In using this furnace the hopper 10 contains the fine p 'ritcs or other sulfid ore under treatment, which flows on to the traveling belt or conveyor 11 as the latter moves in the direction indicated by the arrow 12, thereby producing a layer of said line ore upon said trareling belt, which layer of ore, is constantly moved toward the; leftin Fig. 1. as a layer of substantially uniform thickness.

13 illustrates a suitable burner for pro; ducing a reducing flame which plays upon the surface of the ore during substantially the entire length of time, during which the wardly through the ore is traveling through the length of the reaction zone of the furnace, Which may be of considerable length if desired. This flame is produced by atomized or gasified oil. which may enter through pipe 14:, by means of a mixture of steam and air entering through pipe 15, and the flame is maintained as a reducing' flame in all cases. place of oil, other gaseous fuel may be used.

It may be, in using some particular varieties of fuel, that there Will be suflicient steam furnished, by the combustion of the hydrogen component of the fuel to furnish the necessary amount of steam, in which case it will not be necessary to admit steam through the pipe 15. The combustion chamher is covered by means of a suitable hood 16, which prevents access of outside airv to the ore under treatment. A slight internal pressure may be maintained in the combustion chamber to prevent entrance of false air. Placed below the belt or conveyer 11 is another hood 18, which is provided with a gas outlet 19, leading to a suitable suction, for the purpose of drawing the products of combustion from the burner 13, downbody of ore under treatment, :in( the 'gases and Vapors are delivered by this suction to a suitable gas washer, or other device for recovering and collecting the sulfur driven ofi from the ore under treatment.

Should it be found necessary, a small stream of water may be admitted onto the surface of the ore outside of the reaction zone in order to thoroughly cool off the ore, before or shortly after the ore leaves the bond 16, for example by means of a suitable pipe 20. which may be located at the end of the hood 16, either inside or outside of said hood, although this will not ordinarily be necessary. since the ore can leave this chamber while still in a highlyheated condition, for the reason that since practically all of the sulfur has been driven out from the ore during its passage through the hood 1c, and will not be liable to give ofi' any undesirable fumes or gases even if still red hot. or even hotter.

If the conveyer 11 consists merely of a perforated belt, made of flexible material, then the ore will leave the exit 21 of the hood 16 in the form of a solid porous plate of substantially uniform thickness, and a suitable roller 22, preferably of large diameter may be mounted substantially as shown, for the purpose of breaking this plate into blocks of suitable size for handling in a blast furnace or for any desired use for which the desulfurized ore may be employed.

In Fig. 3, I have shown a belt which is composed of long inflexible plate-like links 25, connected by pins 26, working upon a sprocket pulley 27 of suitable size and con figuration to accommodate these links with the lugs thereon, and if desired these links may also be provided, as illustrated in Fig. 2, with suitable side portions 28, so that these links will form trays, each of which holds a certain sized body of the fine ore, and which body of ore leaves at the exit 21 in the form of a cake which will fall out of the tray-like link 25 when the-same reaches an inverted position, and may be thereafter used for the production of metals such as iron and copper, or otherwise treated.

By thus heating the fine sulfid ore, in the presence of a reducing flame, I can distil from the ore, both the so-called feeble atom of sulfur, and the fixed atom of sulfur, if the ore be pyrites or other ore containing material amounts of pyrites, and I can distil substantially all of the fixed atom should the ore be pyrrhotite or similar sulfid ore, in which no material amount of feeble atom of sulfur exists. The ore briquets thus formed will consist of mostly a mixture of ferric oxid and magnetic oxid if the sulfid under treatment be pyrites, or pyrrhotite.

It will be noted that this process differs from the process of my copending applications as above referred to, in that there is no agitation of the ore under treatment in the present application, and moreover by the use of the flame, which is reducing, the temperature of the body of ore may be maintained rather higher than the temperature maintained in my prior applications above referred to, since said temperature may be run materially above 900 deg. C., at which temperature the ore commences to fuse, and

consequently in the present; case, I may produce cakes or briquets, rather than fines.

The steam in this process, as in the process of my applications above referred to, produces the stable equivalent for the iron, thereby producing iron oxid, while the bulk of the sulfur in the ore is distilled off in the form of free or elemental sulfur as in my 1 prior applications and may be recovered from the gases leaying the gas washer in any suitable manner.

No claim is made herein'to the furnace structure shown in the annexed drawin since this furnace is well known to meta lurgists.

\Vhat I claim is:--

1. A process of 'desulfurizing sulfid ore, which comprises subject-in a moving body of said ore, to a non-oxi izing flame projected downwardly thereupon, whereb sulfur is driven off in the elemental con ition, and withdrawing the vaporous products from below said body of ore.

2. A process of desulfurizing and briqueting sulfid ore, which comprises subjecting a moving body of said ore, to a non-oxidizing flame projected downwardly thereupon, whereby sulfur is driven off in the elemental condition, and withdrawing the vaporous products from below said body of ore, said ere being heated to sintering temperature.

3. A process of (lesulfurizing sulfid ore, which comprises subjecting a moving body of said ore. to a reducing flame of oil fuel, projected downwardly thereupon, whereby sulfur is driven off in the elemental condition, and withdrawing the vaporous products from below said body of ore.

4. A process of desulfurizing sulfid ore, which comprises subjecting a moving body of said ore, to a reducing flame projected downwardly thereupon, withdrawing the vaporous products from below said body of ore, and recovering sulffir from the said vaporous products.

In testimony whereof I have aflixed my signature, in presence. of two witnesses.

'WILLIAM A. HALL. Witnesses A. B. Fos'run, A. M. PERKINS. 

